Whenever a groundwater management district recommends the same or whenever a petition signed by not less than three hundred (300) or by not less than five percent (5%) of the eligible voters of a groundwater management district, whichever is less, is submitted to the chief engineer, the chief engineer shall initiate, as soon as practicable thereafter, proceedings for the designation of a specifically defined area within such district as an intensive groundwater use control area. The chief engineer upon his or her own investigation may initiate such proceedings whenever said chief engineer has reason to believe that any one or more of the following conditions exist in a groundwater use area which is located outside the boundaries of an existing groundwater management district:
K.S.A. 82a-1036